Multi-mode passenger flow sharing characteristics of highway-rail composite intercity corridor

Four node cities, including Xianyang, Weinan, Huangling and Yan'an within 350 km from the central city of Xi'an in Shaanxi Province were selected. The passenger flow characteristic parameters such as travel volume, time inside the vehicle, ticket price or toll of high-speed railway, ordinary railway, long-distance bus and car on the highway were collected. Various methods of intercity passenger flow sharing analysis were summarized. A distance transfer curve model and multivariate Logit model were constructed and were calibrated by curve fitting, trial calculation and regression analysis. According to the model calibration results, the sensitivities of passenger flow sharing rate to distance, time and cost were analyzed, respectively. The sharing characteristics of regional intercity multi-mode passenger flow were obtained, and the relevant suggestions on the planning and management of intercity corridors were given. Analysis result indicates that the fitting results of sharing rate-distance transfer curves of three modes, including high-speed railway, ordinary railway and car on the highway, are ideal. The determination coefficients are all above 0.94. When MNL model takes 90-150 min out of the vehicle, the fitting effect is preferable and the determination coefficients are all above 0.79. The determination coefficients reach the peak values when the time value is 50-70 yuan·h^-1. With the increase of intercity travel distance, the travelers choose to transfer from car on the highway to intercity railway travel. A high-speed railway has more advantage than an ordinary railway. The sharing rate of the car on the highway between Xi'an and Xianyang in a near distance is 96.91%. The sharing rate of the high-speed railway between Xi'an and Yan'an in a long distance is 53.66%, and that of the ordinary railway is 30.58%. Taking the outside time of 120 min as an example: the ranges of impedance coefficient of high-speed railway, ordinary railway, long-distance bus and car on the highway are 0.029-0.044, 0.034-0.042, 0.030-0.040 and 0.028-0.048, respectively, car and high-speed railway have a larger growth range, making both services more sensitive to travel costs. The impedance coefficients of the four modes are 0.038-0.042 under the condition that the time value is 60 yuan·h^-1. There is no significant difference between the four services on the generalized time senisitivity of travel. It is suggested that more passenger flow sharing rules of inter city corridors in urban agglomerations should be explored. The details of an urban end of an inter city travel chain should be considered accurately to guide the macro planning and management of intercity corridors preferably.